confused

@Ceci, Happy to help. The question says, "The author refers to the study by Wickersheimer and Jacquart in order to..." We're looking for the role that this study plays in the passage. In looking at the text, we see that functions as a premise to support the conclusion in the first paragraph that women "were represented in a variety of specialties throughout the broad medical community" (lines 11-12). If you didn't identify the role that the study played in the passage, then it's easy to see how (B) would have been really tempting for you. (B) says, "demonstrate that women are often underrepresented in studies of medieval medical practitioners" The problem with (B) is that it's too broad of an answer choice. The whole point of the author bringing up the study is to demonstrate that midwives constituted only a small proportion of the various roles female medical practitioners had. In doing this, the study does not show that women are often underrepresented in other studies of medieval medical practitioners, so we can get rid of (B). (D) says, "prove that midwives were only a part of a larger community of women medical practitioners during the Middle Ages" As noted above, the purpose of the author discussing the study is to show that there were other kinds of female medical practitioners in addition to midwives. The study supports the author's assertion that the term "midwives" is far too narrow if we are seeking to examine the role and impact of female medical practitioners in medieval society. (D) captures why the author brings up the study, so it's the correct answer choice. Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any more questions!

Hi, I understand your explanation of D and it makes sense now why that is the correct answer. My thought when choosing B was that when you look at the study the question refers to and then the contrast it provides later with the other study - it could illustrate how sometimes women are underrepresented since the other study has women in higher numbers.

Can you help me here?